Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

August 20, 2025

Suh. We have sad news to report: The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which showed how hilariously terrible the English language can be, is no more after its founder decided to retire it. Founded in 1983, the contest was to compose the most atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written.

You can read all past winners here. In memory of this great tradition, here’s our all-time favorite, from Maxwell Archer of Ontario, CA:

“Space Fleet Commander Brad Brad sat in silence, surrounded by a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke, maintaining the same forlorn frown that had been fixed upon his face since he’d accidentally destroyed the phenomenon known as time, thirteen inches ago.”

—Matty Merritt, Sam Klebanov, Dave Lozo, Adam Epstein

MARKETS

Nasdaq

21,314.95

-1.46%

S&P

6,411.37

-0.59%

Dow

44,922.27

+0.02%

10-Year

4.302%

-4.0 bps

Bitcoin

$113,541.45

-2.50%

Nvidia

$175.64

-3.50%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: “As Nvidia goes, so goes the stock market” will be taught in economics courses for generations. The tech stock had a rare down day after investors decided to sell shares of chipmakers ahead of Jerome Powell’s speech on monetary policy in Jackson Hole later this week. That alone dragged down the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq.

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STOCKS

Smash earnings season ignites a summer stock rally

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Like a bad wedding DJ’s hand on the volume button the second a Pitbull song comes on, Wall Street analysts are cranking up earnings estimates at record speeds this quarter. Q2 earnings from companies in the S&P 500 are doing wildly better than expected, with aggregate earnings per share up 11% compared to the same time last year.

Things seem…good? Wall Street analysts are bumping up estimates at the fastest rates in about four years, according to Citigroup data. Roughly 58% of companies in the S&P 500 increased their full-year guidance during the quarter. That’s double the number compared to last quarter, when companies were slashing or completely pulling forecasts over tariff concerns.

Reasons for the boost

When the bar is on the floor, it’s pretty easy to surpass it. Plus, tariffs are still just a bogeyman for many companies, which haven’t yet felt their full effect. Some have offset levies by relying on pre-tariff stockpiles and supplier negotiations. But most economists say that companies—and consumers—won’t feel the full weight until the second half of the year.

The earnings data set is also kinda limited: 1) not every company in the index has reported Q2 earnings yet and 2) the S&P 500 in general is mostly being propped up by huge tech companies that are capitalizing on a massive AI ~~bubble~~ boom:

A weaker US dollar has helped push sales growth outside of the US for larger companies, according to Goldman Sachs.

Big picture: The summer rally might have analysts running to their computers to toss some more zeros and plus signs in their reports, but even the CEOs sharing better-than-expected earnings are getting nervous. McDonald’s execs, for instance, reported a solid Q2 earlier this month but warned its lower-income customers were retreating—a red flag for the economy.

Looking ahead…Walmart and Target are expected to report earnings later this week, which will paint a better picture of the current state of retail.—MM

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Nexstar, Tegna

Nexstar buys Tegna, creating local TV juggernaut. The biggest player in local US TV stations is getting even bigger after it agreed to purchase rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, the companies announced yesterday. The deal would give Nexstar control of 265 stations across 44 states and Washington, DC, which CEO Perry Sook argued is necessary to compete with the tech giants. But critics worry the consolidation will stifle competition and commandeer local programming, and it’s likely to spark regulatory scrutiny. The deal has to be approved by the FCC, whose chair, Brendan Carr, has signaled an openness to relax existing limits on how much broadcasters can own.